Thai University Students’ Voices Heard: Aspired Pronunciation Model

Abstract

It has been agreed at the ASEAN Summit, the English language is positioned to becoming the working language of the region.  To comply with this decision, it is essential that Thai students be prepared to be competent in the English language, particularly for international communication, through a modification of the present  teaching and learning paradigms.  When it comes to English pronunciation, little is known to date about Thai university students’ aspiration with regards to their pronunciation models.  In order to shed some light into the issue, one questionnaire survey was conducted, in this study, to examine Thai university students’ attitudes about their English pronunciation to the question of conforming to native speaker norms or to the ideologies of WEs, EIL, or ELF which focus on intelligibility.  The analysis of 387 responses from first and second year students studying in a public university demonstrates that Thai university students hold more favorable attitudes towards the model of native speakers, and that their views tend to differ from the expectations of teachers and academics. It is therefore of utmost importance for educators to take these views into consideration when making decisions related to national educational plans for English.

Keywords: EIL, pronunciation, aspired model, learners of English, university students